|
The album Reload is
essentially the tracks that were not finished from the Load sessions, at
the time the band had planned to make Load a double album but after a
lengthy stay in the studio they decided to split it up over two albums.
The band insisted that these weren’t Load rejects and claimed that
these songs were of a more extreme nature either heavier or mellower
that needed more time spent so they decided to leave them for this
album.
Kicking off with the
bombastic Fuel, the album immediately announces itself as a “don’t
fuck with this” type of affair. Memory bares another side of the met
with an interesting choice of guest vocals by Marianne faithful
(renowned for her escapades involving Mick Jagger and a mars bar!!) that
offset the often-unrealised heaviness and greatness of the song. Devils
Dance is a mother of a song, with a bass heavy grove underlying the
entire journey with monstrous vocals throughout.
Up next we have an
astonishing ballad in the form of the Unforgiven II, more than a
reworking of the original with a character of its own whilst still being
underpinned with the melody of the first from the Black Album. This
track is immensely deep and powerful, an awesome track, and in my
opinion an equal for the already acclaimed Unforgiven released some six
years previous to this offering.
It’s hereon that I
think some hardcore Metallica fans have had some issue. Although in my
opinion the whole album is awesome it isn’t perhaps up to the standard
we had come to expect, although when the standard is as high as it is,
that’s always going to be difficult. Tracks like Better Than You,
Slither, Prince Charming are all great tracks that blast out of the
speakers without apology and have real melodic undertones that give the
songs added depth, however at 13 tracks long some of these mid album
tracks somewhat merge into one idea rather than having identities for
themselves, with perhaps the exception of Where the Wild Things Are
(co-written by Jason) that has a great feel and melody.
As far as the latter
part of the album goes my favourite section is Low Mans Lyric, Attitude
and the mighty album closer Fixxxer. Low Mans Lyric is a very brave song
that got greeted with some hostility by elements of the fan base. I find
this track a very personal track that James Hetfield’s amazing voice
delivers for us better than we could ever hope for, an amazing track,
the no holds barred stomp of Attitude takes us to a different place,
before the perfect Fixxxer takes us to the end. The epic quality of
Fixxxer is incredible, amazing riffs and lyrics make this one of the
best Load/Reload era tracks (strictly in my opinion of course), a
perfect way to round off the 'tallica’s most experimental period to
date, and a very successful period at that.
Although
many don’t consider Reload the greatest, it is certainly an immense
record in its own right. As Kerrang magazine claimed, “Metallica
cruising is better than most bands firing on all cylinders” a perfect
description if ever there were.
Oliver Smith (courtesy of
Maisie Smith - Fair play Maisie for bringing this monstrosity into our
world) 2004. |
